"We're a financially illiterate nation, with millions caught by misselling, overborrowing and being ripped off. Is it any surprise we’ve just had a debt imbued financial crisis. This must change. Companies spend billions on marketing and teaching their staff to sell – it's time we got buyers' training. The most cost effective way to start is to ensure every child in the country gets a basic understanding of personal finance & consumer rights before leaving school."Martin Lewis, Moneysavingexpert.com

Of all the iniquities we Britons have to endure, perhaps the
most fundamental rip-off, the most insidious betrayal, has been perpetrated by successive governments of the UK. It is the continuing failure to
provide compulsory and robust financial education in schools.

The government also points to the Money Advice Service,
formerly called the Consumer Financial Education Body, set up by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in 2010. The
government has handed control of this body to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the successor (same snake, new skin) of the anaemic and discredited FSA.

Could the government be
planning that this FSA/FCA controlled "Financial Education Body" will be responsible
for Financial Education in Schools? This would be the equivalent of putting
Herod, infamous in biblical times for the slaughter of the infants, in charge
of British childcare policy. What with the FSA’s reputation for protecting
consumers being about the same as Herod’s for protecting children. (To be fair,
Herod had nothing against children in principal – he had fourteen of them though he did execute three). The FSA has admitted it has a poor record for regulation. The level of fines it has
imposed is no deterrent, being a miniscule fraction of bonuses (zoom into the graph above, and you may just be able to
spot the fines). And it was exposed by the consumer organisation Which? for shielding mis-selling financial institutions. Which? complained in May 2012 that the FSA had banned 327 misleading adverts in
2011, but had refused to identify which adverts they were. Which means if you
bought something based on one of these misleading adverts, the FSA won’t tell you.

We should be appalled but not astonished if the government
does plan to hand financial education in schools over to the financial industry
and its regulators.

The Review’s research also indicates that an
effective Money Guidance service can drive behaviour change. Eight out of ten
users of the prototype [money guidance] services surveyed went on to take at
least one action within a week or so of using the service. Of these, over half took specific action such as buying a new
product or speaking to a regulated adviser

In case you were wondering, “regulated advisor” =
“salesman”. Already the Royal Bank of Scotland boasts that its Moneysense programme is
“the largest personal finance education programme in the UK, and has a presence
in 65% of secondary schools”. Financial education, when in the hands of the financial services industry, is as much about selling new products as it is about education

We should not be astonished because successive
governments of all complexions have regarded us Britons as the gift that keeps
on giving. Whether monarchic (the likes of King John handed our ancestors to
the likes of the Sheriff of Nottingham) or democratic (Labour, Liberal, and
Conservative governments hand us over to the directors of banks, energy
companies, rail operators, etc. etc.). The barons show their appreciation by
ripping us off and giving a cut back to the government and its ministers in the form of
taxes, party political contributions, and other nice things.

Donations to political parties

So, what happened after the success of Martin Lewis’
petition to parliament, raising the 100,000 signatories that would require
Parliament to debate compulsory financial education in schools? :

“I strongly support teaching young children about
the importance of financial education, but the point of having a proper review
of the curriculum is to make sure that we know what is absolutely essential and
core and what can be included as extra lessons.”

“That this House notes that young people today grow
up in an increasingly complex financial world requiring them to make difficult
decisions for the future, often without the necessary level of financial
literacy; believes that financial education will help address the national
problem of irresponsible borrowing and personal insolvency and that teaching
people about budgeting and personal finance will help equip the workforce with
the necessary skills to succeed in business and drive forward economic growth;
further believes that the country has a duty to equip its young people properly
through education to make informed financial decisions; and calls on the
Government to consider the provision of financial education as part of the
current curriculum review.”

The motion was duly passed. It is perhaps worth noting
that while there were 227 members wanting to be associated with this campaign,
for the actual debate the chamber was rather sparsely attended. Giving comfort to the government that MPs on the whole would not get out of bed to protest if the matter was once again quietly ignored.

"Dear Martin…As you will know, schools use personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education as a framework within
which to teach young people about personal financial management. The PSHE
non-statutory programmes of study include elements aimed at ensuring that, by
the time they leave school, pupils should be able to manage their money,
understand and explain financial risk and reward and identify how finance will
play an important part in their lives and in achieving their aspirations….Yours,David" (lol)

"Dear Prime Minister…So far, your government's only commitment has been
Schools Minister Nick Gibb saying: "It'll be looked at in the curriculum
review." That's good, but please ensure this isn't political double-speak
for being filed in the bin.Kind regardsMartin LewisMoneySavingExpert.com"

"Financial education is
currently taught as part of the non-statutory framework for personal, social,
health and economic (PSHE) education.

In July 2010, Ofsted
published a report on PSHE education in schools, based on evidence from
inspections of 165 maintained schools in England between September 2006 and
July 2009. Inspectors found that students in those schools that were
successfully developing personal finance education showed a good understanding
of personal finance, used financial terms correctly and were able to apply
their knowledge in making financial decisions….We are reviewing PSHE, including
financial capability, to determine how we can improve the quality of all PSHE
teaching and support teachers to teach the subject well. The review will allow
the Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for
Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), to consider the place of financial education in
the curriculum."

“does not contain
provisions to extend financial education to the compulsory part of the national
curriculum….The issue has been debated on the Floor of the House and the point
ought to have been accepted by the Government by now. ”

If Financial Education is ever made
compulsory, the GCSE should have two papers:

a)
How we Britons can use financial services.

b)
How financial services can abuse us Britons.

As a bit of fun last Christmas,
Ripped-Off Britons posted a Rip-Off Quiz. We thoroughly recommend some of this as the
basis for the Financial Competency GCSE. If the Education Secretary would like someone to produce the exam paper, we are ready to help!

Make no mistake: used properly financial services would be a font of prosperity for the many. Regrettably, in today's Britain financial services form a cornucopia siphoning wealth away from the many to the few.

If our children understand this, and if they help their parents understand this, and if they become adults (including becoming bankers) who understand this, then we will all be more prosperous at every stage of our lives.

To
be precise, we would all be more prosperous except the executives who currently pocket the profits of ripping off us Ripped-Off Britons.

16th July saw an Early Day Motion in Parliament, supported by just 17 MPs

"That this House recognises that people on low incomes are often excluded from mainstream financial services and that many have poor financial literacy skills, which makes them more likely to end up in debt; notes that this exclusion leads to a reliance on door-step lenders, pawnbrokers, payback stores and payday loans which come with vastly inflated levels of interest; and calls on the Government to take action to provide greater access to free money advice services, regulate high-interest lenders, promote alternatives such as credit unions, and ensure that everyone has access to a basic bank account."

Every old bone on my body creaks with weariness. I've taught all sorts of things to all sorts of people over my lifetime in education but I can say that telling schools they legally have to teach specific things is one of many ways of making sure that most people don't learn what was intended.

What you can do is encourage independence of thought where it doesn't already exist, demonstrate and respond positively to a critical approach and cover basic numeracy. As children grow older challenge them to rethink in anything they get interested in. The questioning habits of mind you might kindle or keep alive are what will make children into resilient adults.

Curriculum content prescription is no way to improve a society. It immediately and necessarily makes teachers and pupils into servants. Fortunately many of them wriggle free.

As we mentioned in an earlier post, the government has included financial education as part of Citizenship. While taking Citizenship is compulsory, taking the GCSE exam is not.http://www.blog.rippedoffbritons.com/2013/02/government-tries-to-dodge-effective.html

2012 figures show Citizenship (10,982 GCSEs awarded) sits between the non-compulsory study of the ancient Greeks and Romans (Classical Studies, 15,265 GCSEs) and Welsh as a second language (9,743 GCSEs). Not a subject taken seriously either by schools or students.